What do you mean by "draw a bypass (MSc)"?

For the BBSRC a standard maintenance grant is £9500 pa (£11500 pa in London). With a CASE award the collaborating body provides an additional stipend of at least £2500 pa.

If you already have an MSc then you should be able to start on a PhD course. Some universities start all PhD students on an MPhil programme, but providing you are good enough after one year your registration will be changed to a PhD. Effectively it's the same as starting out being registered for the PhD programme.

You could just do a PhD on its own, but if you really want to be medical doctor, then you should do a medical degree first. Funding will be difficult to obtain, but you should try first the British Council in Kenya and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

A medical degree in the UK will take at least 5 years. A PhD in the UK will take at least 3 years.

Here is a good place to start - try the search section where you you'll be able to search for PhDs in Leeds. New studentships continue to be advertised through the year, but you should start applying now, as competition gets harder and harder as the year progresses.

Do a masters. An MRes is ideally suited to people who wish to do a PhD as it will give you research experience and training. If you wish to change your specialty a little bit, then you may be better with a taught course (MSc), but make sure there is a proper research element within the degree.

Starting a new undergraduate course may give you the required 2(i), but any potential supervisors will probably think you're insane and you may never get an interview.

Here is a good place to start - try the search section where you you'll be able to search for PhDs in London. New studentships continue to be advertised through the year, but you should start applying now, as competition gets harder and harder as the year progresses.

There are many variations, and tales of people taking half their adult life to write a thesis, but in the UK people are encouraged to submit a thesis within three to four years. Research Council studentships cover a three year study period and many people complete their research and submit their thesis within this time. As the university receives no money after this period, most charge a ‘writing up’ or ‘continuation fee’ to the student (they will not award the degree until this bill is paid). The fee is to allow you to use the universities facilities and is usually a reasonable one, designed to encourage you to finish rather than make money. Late submission of a thesis reflects badly on the supervisor and they will find it harder to get new grants from the research councils if they have a number of students taking more than 4 years to write up.

If a studentship is not funded by a UK research council, then the rules may be different. For example some schemes funded by overseas governments require the student to study for four years, allowing time for language tuition in the first year and extra time to write the thesis at the end (writing in a second language isn’t easy).

Sorry Janet, but we've had to cut your post in half. We can't publish peoples email addresses or solicit people to contact individuals without their permission.


The best careers advice will come from your tutors on your MSc course. At very least ask them where the relevant environmental science jobs are advertised - most trade publications have special careers editions and will provide careers links on their web sites.

The only employers who would discriminate would be ones who know very little about research in whatever specialty you choose. Most PhDs at the open university are carried out in the same way as at other universities (you don't just get them for recording BBC2 through the night). Like most institutions the Open University is strong in some subject areas (eg Earth Sciences) and not so strong in others.

In the sciences this is not generally possible. Before funding is awarded research projects are assessed by other academics to judge whether they are scientifically valid and are suitable for a PhD student (i.e. is there a reasonable chance that the student will get any results in three years). There are exceptions, a few departments do ask applicants to submit research proposals, based on the research currently taking place in their department. If you want to pay for the PhD yourself then it's a different story. You'll need to find a research group that has expertise in your area. Your potential supervisor will be quick to let you know whether your project is realistic. If you are funding yourself you'll need to cost things like trips to conferences, field trips, etc.

Many PhDs, particularly in environmental science involve field work and collaboration in different countries

Our advertisers up date their own project entries and flag the availability status, consequently if they do not log in to the site once they have stopped accepting applications for that year, their entries still appear. During the past few months we have introduced a compulsory application deadline field, where academics can specify a date or that applications are accepted all year around. Whilst we still do not have this information for all our subscribers, we will begin displaying this information in search results (and using it to hide lapsed projects) on a new version of the site, which will be on line in a week or two's time.

In addition to improvements to the search and results the new edition of the site will be easier to navigate, feature a faster version of this forum and an expanded PhD Books section.

Being a medical doctor will not count against you and will be an advantage in many subject areas.

I'm afraid your description here is too vague to say yes or no. In many subjects people are able to change specialisation quite easily when they start a post-doc, however sometimes experience in a particular technique can be a requirement. Ask people who know your field whether you'll be able to move. You should remember that doing a PhD where you have no interest in the subject is not a very good idea - it's hard work that requires persistence.